Delaware could be deciding vote on natural gas drilling

Our comment: It appears Delaware Governor Jack Markell may cast the deciding vote on whether more natural gas will become available to Delaware citizens. Over time, this increased supply would naturally result in lower prices. Environmentalists are alarmed because their carefully laid plans are being destroyed. They are driving energy prices higher to force the rest of us to change our habits against our will. This strategy is being disrupted by new, safe technologies that are bringing massive new quantities of natural gas and oil to Americans from our own country, rather than foreign lands.It will be an interesting test for Governor Markell. Will he stand with the economically stressed citizens of Delaware, or will a handful of elite environmentalists, mostly from out of state, get their way? So far, to the best of our knowledge, he has stood 100% on the side of higher cost energy.Will he reach a hand out to the four young men I saw walking down Rt. 113 last week with no destination in sight? One of them wore only a worn dress shirt against a biting wind and cold temperatures. How about the underweight young man I recently observed trying to buy lunch for $1.69 who had his credit card declined?With real unemployment standing near 20% for several years, many of our citizens are in desperate financial condition. They can't afford an extra dime for energy but over and over their need has been ignored by Delaware's government.As the saying goes, however, every day can be a new beginning. There can always be positive change and if Governor Markel decides in favor of the people this time, we'll praise him to the rafters for it.



Delaware has landed at the center of a political and environmental battle over natural gas locked deep underground far north of the state's border, with Gov. Jack Markell's administration seen as a potential swing vote on well-drilling regulations set to go before a regional commission next Monday.
A coalition of environmental groups emphasized the state's role in the natural gas "fracking" dispute late Monday, calling on Markell to oppose new rules during a news conference and presentation at the University of Delaware's Trabant Center.
"I really don't know where Delaware stands," said Maya van Rossum, who directs the regional Delaware Riverkeeper Network. "I think that they're a big question mark, and they could be the deciding vote."
Markell holds one of five seats on the Delaware River Basin Commission, a group considering new rules to protect surface and groundwater during extraction of natural gas trapped in shale deposits below northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. The commission's proposals would also regulate the amount of water used for wells and the injection of water and other chemicals into the ground to break up stone and release gas.
Supporters argue that drilling methods are safe and the region and nation need the energy and economic boost new wellfields will bring. Opponents say the rock fracturing, or fracking, process will damage aquifers, pollute groundwater and eventually taint the Delaware River.
They also claim that the public has been shut out of the latest rulemaking effort.
"The administration has heard from a number of people on this issue and is still reviewing the proposals before next week's vote," Brian Selander, Markell's spokesman, said Monday afternoon. "The significant majority of contacts made with our office have been from out of state, and the majority of those have been from those opposed."
Monday evening, fracking opponents directed more comments Markell's way, after calling on him throughout the day to attend the UD program. Administration officials said Markell's schedule Monday night did not include activities at Trabant Center, however. Similar rallies were held in Harrisburg, Trenton, N.J., Philadelphia and New York. The governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York also direct the commission, along with a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers' Philadelphia district office. Any three could approve the new regulations. Markell was expected to designate Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Secretary Collin O'Mara to represent him on Nov. 21, Selander said. Tom Shepstone, a northeastern Pennsylvania landowner and representative of Energy In Depth, a gas and oil industry coalition, said Monday that approval is long overdue. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission approved rules targeting shale gas wells in late 2008, and has continued to update the program. Pennsylvania has issued thousands of well-drilling permits this year for land outside the Delaware River watershed, and officials in that state have reported that shale gas wells now produce more natural gas than the state needs. "Why we were treated differently than the SRBC obviously was a political thing. It shouldn't have taken anywhere near this long," said Shepstone, who described the gas industry as an economic lifeline. "We desperately need something in our area of Pennsylvania to revive things. We're going nowhere. This is extremely important." Bentek Energy, a Colorado-based industry analysis company, reported recently that shale gas discoveries will likely lead to a doubling of pipeline capacity by 2013, with major expansions in the Northeast. The Energy Department has separately predicted that shale gas production -- a tiny fraction of national output just 10 years ago, could grow to 46 percent of the nation's natural gas output in 25 years, with proven reserves doubling in just one year. The Marcellus shale in the Northeast is the largest continuous formation of its type in the world, Bentek pointed out last year, and because of its location under and near major metropolitan areas, is a potential boon to suppliers and users. The New Jersey Sierra Club club countered Monday that the environmental price for extracting the gas is too high, while delivering more than 71,000 letters from citizens and lawmakers opposing the DRBC's draft rules to Gov. Chris Christie. "The rules were weak and now they have made them worse without public scrutiny," Jeff Tittel, the New Jersey Sierra Club's director said. Fracking opponents have argued that drilling produces huge amounts of water laced with chemicals difficult to treat or remove before discharge to public rivers and streams. The Environmental Protection Agency has largely left the job of regulating those discharges to the states and programs unprepared to deal with the challenge, according to critics. Claims have surfaced that well-drilling operations have altered groundwater quality, spilled toxic wastewater into soils, caused erosion and air pollution and fouled wells, in some cases sending methane gas into home wells. One company, Cabot Oil & Gas, was required to provide replacement water supplies to several households northwest of Scranton, Pa., after tests found methane and other chemicals in wells after drilling began nearby. Company officials denied that their operation tainted the wells. The EPA recently announced plans to study the effects of fracking on drinking water, and said it would develop national wastewater management standards for the industry. Shepstone said the opposition has focused on "hysteria" surrounding unproven incidents of groundwater and well contamination.Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said her group was encouraged by the move toward regulations allowing well development, but added that industry has questions of its own. "We ... have concerns given what we don't know about these proposed regulations, particularly regarding what exactly the Natural Gas Development Plans may, or may not, require," Klaber said. The Delaware Riverkeeper's van Rossum dismissed the DRBC's proposals as inadequate and not sufficiently protective. "We are at one of the defining moments of our time and for our region," van Rossum said. "Will we trade the water, air, food and health of thousands of communities and millions of people to smash gas from the ancient rocks for a false promise of cheap energy?"

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